Engineering News reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa has assured South Africans that the economic recovery plan he presented last week will protect jobs in vulnerable sectors that have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Presidential Employment Stimulus announced last week involves a public investment of R100-billion over the next three years, which Ramaphosa said marked a fundamental shift in the country’s approach to tackling unemployment. In his weekly address to the nation, he said support would be provided to early childhood development practitioners, mainly self-employed women. Over 74,000 small farmers will receive production input grants. On the education front, government has developed a new programme to employ teaching and school assistants in schools across the country. There is also a focus on graduates, with opportunities for nurses, science graduates, artisans and others. The stimulus provides new funding to help the arts and culture sector and includes support to digital content-creation and an expansion of e-commerce platforms. Ramaphosa explained that this would allow artists to adapt to new market conditions brought on by the pandemic. The stimulus will also provide affordable, high-speed broadband to low-income households through connection subsidies and the expansion of free public WiFi.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
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